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Drummond (WILLIAM a Scotch poet born)

WILLIAM, a Scotch poet; born in Edinburgh, Dec. 13, 1585.

He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, after which he spent four years in foreign travels. On his return to Scotland he retired to Hawthornden.

He entertained Ben Jonson, on the occasion of a visit which the English dramatist made to Scotland in the winter of 1618-1619, and took notes of Jonson's conversation, which were first published in 1711. He was the first Scotch writer to abandon the native dialect for the language raised to supremacy by the Elizabethan writers. His chief productions are: "The Cypress Grove," in prose, containing reflections upon death; "Flowers of Zion, or Spiritual Poems"; "Tears on the Death of Mœliades"; "Poems, Amorous, Funeral, Divine, Pastoral, in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals"; "The River Forth Feasting" and "History of the Lives and Reigns of the Five Jameses, Kings of Scotland."

He died in Edinburgh, Dec. 4, 1649.